Salman Siraj

Bsf 2004775
BS English 3rd Morning

Timeline Of History Of English Literature:

Anglo-Saxon period (670-1100 A.D) :

Old English Period ;
Started By :
 This phase started with the literature of Angels and Saxons ( The ancestors of English race).
 These tribes were fearless ,brave ,and adventurous.
 They sang of their feats about battles , gods, and their ancestral heroes.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry:
Themes before Christianity:

1. Widsith: Continual courts visited in imagination by far wandering poet

2. Waldhere: Tells how walter of Aquitaine withstood a host of foes in passess of Vosges.
3. The Complaint Of Deor : Disappointment of a lover
4. Beowulf: Tale of adventure of Beowulf -Champion and slayer of monsters.

Themes After Christianity:

 After the Anglo-Saxon embraced christianity ,the poets took up the religious themes as the
subject matter of poetry.
 Major portion of Anglo -Saxon poetry is religious.
(i) Caedmon:
Caedmon called the Father of English song.His poem
Hym (fate of man) is oldest piece of verse in English language.
Fate of the man from the beginning to the day of last Judgement.
(ii) Cynwulf:
The important poem of this era is “Crist” written by Cynwulf
Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon poetry:
 Traditions of older world
 Express another world of living
  Poetry of stem and passionate people.

Prose/ Chronicles :
The Anglo-Saxon period was marked by beginning of English prose.

 The tendency is towards observance of rules of ordinary

Speeches
 Chronicles
 Alfred’s translation
 Great Successreligious institutions

Pioneers of English prose:

Two great pioneers of English prose were

(i) Alfred the Great:

The religious king of Wessex,who translated a number of Latin Chronicles in English.

(iii) Alfric :
A priest who wrote sermons in a sort of poetic prose.
(iv) Five Great Principle:
1.love of personal Freedom
2.Responsiveness to nature
3.Love for womanhood
4.Love for religion .

5.Structure/Struggle for glory

Language:
Branch of Aryan language.
And mixture of Sanskrit-Iranian-Greek-Latin
Norman’s Conquest:

Battle of Hastings – Harold, last king – Defeated by William

Anglo-Norman Period (1100-1500)

 Middle English Period:
Middle English period or Medieval period

Started By :
Anglo-Saxon were defeated by Normans in the battle of Hastings in 1066

Characteristics:
(i) Literature was transformed according to the taste of English rulers.
(ii) Wholesome awakening of nation
( iii) Normans not only brought soldiers and traders but also scholars.

(iv) cultivated as a natural speech.

Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman:

 Disappearance of the old English poetry.
 Poetry grows to rich maturity.
 Anglo-Norman period has nothing in common

The Romances:
(v) Most famous topic
(vi) Romances are famous for their story rather than their poetry.
(vii) Romances were borrowed from Latin and French.

Drama:
 Miracle plays become very famous; growth and development of the Bible story, Old
Testament, life of Christ. also called as mystery plays.
 Morality plays; uniform theme of struggle
 Between good and evil.
 Allegory is the distinguishing mark of moral plays.

William Langland ( 1332-1386):

A Vision of Piers the Plowman:
(i) Archaic style
(ii) Satire on corrupt religious practices.
(iii) Ethical problems of the days
(iv) Represents the more thinking class of society
 (v) Feudal system is his ideal.

John Gower ( 1330-1408)

 Gower represents the English culmination of that courtly medieval poetry
 He is a great stylist.
 He was mainly a narrative poet.
 Confession Amantis; conversation Between the poet and interpreter, an encyclopedia of the
art of love, And satiries the vanities of current time.
 He presents himself as a moralist.

Chaucer ( 1340?...1400)
Father of English poetry.

 His education was two-fold; French and Italian.

 He was a realist.
 He removed poetry from reign of Metaphysics and Theology.
 Famous poem: Canterbury tales; collection of stories related by the Pilgrims.
 In the prologue Chaucer’s powers are shown at its peak.
 This poem is a landmark in English poetry; enriched the language.
 This poem showed the way to novelists to portray characters.
His work was in three periods:
First period:

i. Intimated by French Models.

ii. Translation of Le Roman de la Rose – Romaunt of the Rose.
iii. Book of Duchess; an elegy
iv. Complaint unto Pity; a shorter poem.
v. ABC; a series of stanza in Alphabetical order.
Second period:

(i) Showed the influence of Italian literature.

(ii) Dante’s Divine Comedy and Boccaccio’s poems
(iii) The Parliament of Fowls; satiric dialogue between assembled
(iv) Birds.
(v) Troilus and Criseyde; story of Trojan Prince.
(vi) The Story of Griselda; pitiful picture of womanhood.
(vii) The House of Fame; contemplation of human folly.
Third period:

 Purely English period.

  Threw off foreign influence.
 Legend of Good Woman; heroic couplet.
 Canterbury Tales; greatest work.
Chaucer’s successors
After Chaucer there was decline in English poetry.Few minor poets who were imitators and
successors of Chaucer.Occleve, Lydgate, Hawes, Skelton, Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas
didlittle work but copy Chaucer.

THE ORIGIN OF DRAMA

Liturgical PlaysMiracle Plays and Mystery Plays

Morality PlaysInterludeRegular Tragedy and Comedy.

The Origin and Liturgical Plays:

 Religious origin
 Critic said ―attitude of religion and drama towards each other has been
Strikingly varied. Sometimes it has been one of intimate alliance Sometimes of active hostility,
but never of indifference.
 6Th to 10th century was dark ages and England had hostile relation.
 9Th century origin of Troops or additional texts with ecclesiastical Music.
 They were in Latin.
 Later detached and performed on religious festival like Easter and Christmas.
 Life of Christ was topic.

The Miracle and Mystery Plays:

(i) First representation of Mystery plays took place in 1119.
(ii) The miracle plays dealt with the life of saints (non-scriptural matter).
(iii) The mystery plays handle incidents from the bible (scriptural themes).
(iv) They had better dialogue.
(v) Significant change in locale and players.
(vi) Place of performance shifted from church to churchyard, and from Churchyard to market place.
(vii) And the actors werelaymen as clergy could not go to market place.

The Morality Plays:

 This is the stage of secularization.
 They have characters of an allegorical nature, such as personification
Of abstract qualities of various vices and virtues etc.
 They convey moral lessons for the better conduct of human life.
 Writers enjoy greater freedom.
 The best known play is The Castle of Perseverance and Everyman.
 Most amusing characters were Vice and Devil.
 The former, arrayed in grotesque costume and armed with a wooden
Sword or dagger.
 The devil that appeared with horns, a long beard, and a hairy chest.

Interludes:
(i) Important transition from symbolism to Interlude
(ii) Appeared at the end of 15th century.
(iii) Gave up didactic character (the purpose of didactic plays are to give
Advice as in morality plays).
(iv) Most notable writer was John Heywood.
(v) David Daiches said ―the emphasis is more on amusement than Instruction.
(vi) In the words of W.H. Hudson interludes signifies ―any short dramatic Piece of a satiric rather
than of a directly religious or ethical Character, and in tone and purpose far less serious than
morality Proper.

The Beginning of Regular Tragedy:

 1530-1580 drama underwent a dramatic change.
 With the dawn of renaissance English Dramatist start looking Greek and
Roman dramatists.
 Tragedies of Seneca influenced them the most.
 All of them have revenge as their leitmotif.
 Excessive bloodshed, long rhetorical speeches, and the inclusion of the
 Ghost as an inevitable member of the dramatis personae.
 Abundance of horror instead of the element fear.

First tragedy was Gorboduc (or later Ferrex and Porrex) written by
Thomas Sackville (1536-1608) and Thomas Norton (1531-1584) and
Acted in 1561-62 before Queen Elizabeth at White Hall.

The Beginning of Regular Comedy:

 Plautus and Terence influenced the English Comedy.
 English Comedy had a well rooted native tradition.
 First comedy was Ralph Roister Doister written about 1550 by Nicholas
Udall, head-master of Eton.
 It was the combination of native tradition and Roman comedy of
 Plautus and Terence.
 Next was Gammer Gurton’s Needle dated about 1553 and ascribed by
John Still.

Conclusion:
(i) From the work of Gorboduc, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, and Ralph
(ii) Roister Doister it is evident that how far the drama has advanced from
(iii) Liturgical Plays.
(iv) A gradual gravitation towards the realities of life.
(v) There is still lacking of literary power and grace which are latter supplied by ―the University
Wits.
The Renaissance Period (1500-1600)

 Elizabethan Period
 Age of Shakespeare.
Characteristics:
(i) Begin in Italy, in the 15th century.
(ii) In England it started in 16th century.
(iii) New ways of seeing and thinking developed.
(iv) Revival of Learning.
(v) First Fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D by the invasion of Turks, the Greek Scholars residing
there flew all over the world.
(vi) Essence of movement was ―man discovered himself and the Universe.
(vii) And that ―man so long blinded had Suddenly opened his eyes and See
(viii) King – Head of Church – Bringing Church and State together.
(ix) Truth was only Authority.
Invention and Discoveries:
 printing press was invented
 Vascoda Gama circumnavigated the earth.
 Columbus discovered America.
 Copernicus discovered Solar System and prepared way for Galileo.
Features:

 Emphasis on Humanism.
 Started by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio in Italy.
 Focused on ―The proper study of mankind.
Humanism:
 Rediscovery of classical antiquity, and particularly of ancient Greece.
 Men’s concern with himself as an object of contemplation.
 Discovery of external universe, and its significance for man.
 The emphasis was on the qualities which distinguish one human being From another.
 The enhanced sensitiveness to formal beauty.
 Men came to be regarded as responsible for their own actions.

Elizabethan Drama:
The most memorable achievement was in this genre.
They bought the educated classes into the touch with a much more Highly developed kind of
drama.

First period:
(i) Middle of 16th century some academic writers made attempts to
(ii) Write original plays on Latin model.
(iii) Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall.
(iv) Grummar Gurton’s Needle by John Still.
(v) Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex by Thomas Sackville.

Second Period:
 The Second Period of Elizabethan drama was dominated by the University Wits
 The University Wits were a group of well-educated scholars
 They were members of different societies and they have same views about morality and
god.

University Wits:
(i) John Lyly.
(ii) Robert Greene
(iii) George Peele
(iv) Thomas Lodge
(v) Thomas Kyd
(vi) Thomas Nash
(vii) Christopher Marlowe.

John Lyly (1554-1606):

 Famous for his Prose rather than romance.
 Wrote a number of plays among them which are Compaspe, Sapho and Phao, Endymion, Midas,
and Euphues.
 These plays are Mythological, and Pastoral and nearer to Masque.
 They are written in prose intermingled with verse.
 Euphuism; though the verse is simple and charming prose marred by exaggeration ,a
characteristic of Euphuism.

George Peele:(1558-97?)
(i) He formed the band of dissolute young men along Peele
(ii) Marlowe, Greene, and Nash, endeavoring to earn a livelihood By literary work.
(iii) Peele was responsible for giving the blank verse music work Quality
(iv) He was writer as well as actor of the play
(v) The Arraignment of Paris; which contain an elaborate eulogy Of Queen Elizabeth.
(vi) David and Bathsheba; contains many beautiful lines.

Thomas Lodge and Thomas Nash:

They both are much more important for their fiction than their Dramatic art.The Wounds of
Civil War are their only play.

Thomas Kyd (1558-95)

 He achieved great popularity with his first work The Spanish Tragedy, translated in many
European languages.
 It was based on Senecan model, but he broke the lifeless Monotony of Gorboduc.
 Off-course it has excessive bloodshed, suicides, and horrifying
Incidents, the ghost, and many other features but there was Much of action on the stage itself.
 The Elizabethan audiences had a craving for watching Sensational, even horrifying action.
 He gave a new kind of tragic hero who is ordinary person.
 Along with this also external conflict in the play, self-analysis.
 Kyd’s blank verse was ridiculed for its pomposity and Exaggeration but it was the demand of
audience.

Robert Greene (1560-1592)

 Lived the most dissolute life.
 Achieves distinctions by the vigorous humanity of his
Characterization.
 His plays are Orlando Furioso, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Alphonsus King of Aragon, and
George a Greene.
 Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay deals with the tricks of the friar
 And the love story between two men and a maid.

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

 Marlowe raised the subject-matter of drama to a higher level.His plays were tragedies with
super-human heroes who Stretched the limits of human life in several ways.
 His language was more Classic than Shakespeare.
 He introduced passion on stage, and his heroes were men of Great strength and vitality,
possessing insatiable spirit of
Adventure.
 He gave coherence and unity to the drama. Also give beauty and dignity and Poetic glow to
drama.
 He made blank verse supple and flexible to suit drama
He has been called as ―

The Father of English Dramatic Poetry.”

His plays are:

(i) Tamburlaine, the Great;(Ambition for power)

(ii) Doctor Faustus;(ambition for infinite knowledge)
(iii) The Jew of Malta;(ambition for Gold)
(iv) Edward, the Second;(chronicle play, a genuine tragedy)
(v) Parts of The Massacre at Pans; and
(vi) Dido queen of Carthage.

Shakespeare (1564-1616) :
 Greatest of Elizabethan Dramatists, Poor , uneducated boy
 He has marvellous imaginative and creative mind,he put new life into old familiar stories.
Characteristics
 He has proper training first as an actor, second as a reviser of old plays ,and last as an
independent dramatists.
 He studied deeply and observed minutely the people he came in contact with.
 His natural genius as well as a hard work shows dramatic output
His Work:
1. Venice and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece
2. 154 sonnets ,37 plays ,and his period extended to 24 years
Work Periods :
His work is generally divided into 4 periods.
(i) 1577-93
 This period belong to revision of old plays
 Like Henry VI ,Titus Andronicus.
 Comedies: Love’s Labour’s Lost,The Two Gentlemen of Verona,The Comedy of Errors, and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
 Chronicles: Richard III ;a youthful tragedy -Rameo and Juliet.
 (ii) 1594-1600
 This period belong to Great Comedies and Chronicles plays
 Richard II,King John,The Merchant of Venice,Henry IV-V
 The Taming Of the Shrew,The Merry Wives of Windsor,Much Ado About Nothing,As You Like It
,Twelfth Night.
 These plays reveal Shakespeare’s great development as a thinker and technician.
 They show the maturity of his mind and art.
(iii) 1601-1608
 This period belong to Greatest tragedies and bitter Comedies
 This is peak period characterised by highest development of his thoughts and expression.he
shows darker side of human experience and its destructive passion. .
 Even comedies has grave tone and emphasis on evil
 The Plays are : Julies Caesar,Hamlet,All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure ,Troilus and
Cressida ,Othello,King Lear Macbeth,Antony and Cleopatra,Coriolanaus,and Timon of Athens.
(iv) 1608 – 1612
 This period belong to later Comedies or Dramatic Romances.
 In these plays the evil is now controlled and conquered by good.
 The tone of the plays is gracious and tender and there is decline in Power of expression and
thoughts.
 Plays were : Cymbeline ,The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale .

Ben Johnson (1573-1637)

 He was classicist ,a moralist,and a reformer of drama.
 He represents the true picture of society
 He attempts all the unities of time,place and action.
His Comedies :
 The Alchemist : which shows brilliant realistic Elizabethan comedy.
 Volpone : it is satirical study of avarice
 The Silent Women: Written in lighter mood approaches comedy manner
Tragic Plays:
 Sejanus and Caraline: on classical model but not successful.

ELIZABETHAN POETRY :
History :
(i) First English poetry of Renaissance, as Tottel’s Miscellany (1557).This book contains
verse of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Earl of Surrey
(ii) It was adhered to Petrarcan Model
 (iii) It contains Blank verse.
(iv) Variety of metres were also there.

Rhyme Scheme:
 Rhyme scheme of sonnets including Shakespeare’s was ababbcdcdefefgg
This is called Elizabethan scheme.
 It is Different form Petrarchan scheme .

Writers Of Elizabethan Poetry:

1 Thomas Sackville (1536-1608)

 Mirror For Magistrate: in it poets describes his meetings with some famous Englishman
 He was not a cheery Writer,but superior to Wyatt and Surrey in Poetic technique.
Sir Philip Sidney (1555-1586)
(i) He was a many-sided person and a versatile genius -solider , courtier and poet.
(ii) Queen Elizabeth called him “ Jewels of her Crown”
His Work:
 He mark in prose as well as in poetry .His prose works are Aracdia and Apologie for Poetrie.
 Arcadia: it has imaginative Writing ,and strewn with love songs and sonnets.
 Apologie for Poetrie (1595) : useful Commentaries which some English poets have written
about their art .
 Astrophel and Stella : in which Sidney celebrated the history of his love .have sequence of
sonnets.
 Sincerity and passion reflect in his poetry
Spenser (1552-1599):
 He was poet of chivalry and Medieval allegory.
 Transition time period was moving towards modern and artistic expression.
 The Faerie Queen : On surface it appears to be dealing with petty intrigues,corrupt
dealings and clever manipulation of politicans .but form higher view it shows glory of
medivel time .
 Shepherd Calendar ( 1579) : A pastrol poem written in artificial classical style,it deals with
moral questions and contemporary religious issues.
 Astrophel (1586): an Elegy ,which he wrote on death of Sidney
 Four Hymns: melodious verse,have love and beauty
 Amoretti :. 88 Sonnets, Written in Petrarcan manner
 Greatness of Spenser:
(i) His artistic excellence, noble ideas and lofty ideals
(ii) Poet of beauty, music,and harmony, brought reconciliation
(iii) No harsh note,and had spirit of great painter
(iv) Greatest contribution is Spenserian stanza
(v) Which suited to descriptive or reflective poetry.
(vi) “Spenser is the poet’s poet “
ELIZABETHAN PROSE:
 It was forms of amusement and information,have Printing Press,Books on history, travel,
adventure and translation of Italian stories.
 It has patriotism and nationalism
 Decorative modes of expression and flowery style.
John Lyly (1554-1606)
 Euphues: Highly artificial and decorative style.its maxims and phrases
 Euphuism; become a common description of an artificial and flamboyant style.
Euphues has Three Characteristics:
1.it has antithesis and alliteration.
2.No fact is stated without reference to some classical authority.
3 . Abundance of allusion to natural history,mostly of a fabulous kind.
Purpose of Writing Euphues:
 It instruct courtiers and gentlemen how to live,full of grave reflection and weighty morals .
 Criticism of contemporary society,liberal and humane outlook.

THE PURITAN AGE ( 1600-1660):

History:
 It is also called Puritan age or Age of Milton.
 Jacobean for James l, Caroline for Charles l.
 Then started Restoration Period or Age of Dryden,17th Century was marked by decline in
Renaissance Spirit
Features Of Puritan Age:
(i) New modern development, modern spirit,
(ii) Spirit of observation, preoccupation with details,
(iii) Systematic analysis of facts, feelings and ideas, spirit of science popularized.
(iv) English language become a vehicle for storing and conveying facts.
(v) Important feature of this new spirit of observation and analysis was “popularisation of the
art of biography”.
(vi) Autobiography: also came in wake of biography
(vii) Diaries and journals: they become very popular for example Pepy’s Diary and Fox’s
Journal.

Puritanism:
 Milton: He was representer of Puritan spirit.
 Puritan Movement: Marked by rebirth of moral nature of man , followed by intellectual
awakening.
 They vanish sensuous and pagan .
 Despotism , fanaticism were rampant
 It gives introduction to morality and high ideals in politics
 Two objectives of , Personal righteousness and civil and religious liberty
 Making man honest and free

Puritan Poetry :
It is divided into three parts .

1. Poetry of the School of Spenser

2. Poetry of the Metaphysical School
3. Poetry of the Cavalier Poets

1. School of Spenser:
 The Spenserian were followers of Spenser,in spite of changing conditions and literary taste.
 They consider him as their master.
 They were ,Phineas Flecher, Giles Fletcher, William Browne, William Drummond , George
Wither

3. Poets of Metaphysical School

They were john Donne,Herrick,Thomas Carew , Richard Crashaw,Henry Vaughan, George
Herbert and Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
Characteristics :
(i) They were highly philosophical, Poetry full of conceits , exaggeration, quibbling and far-
fetched Smiles and Metaphors.
(ii) Harshness in their expression
(iii) Intellectual point of view
(iv) Excessive use of literary devices.
(v) Ramdom/irregular style
(vi) Discover occult resemblance in things apparently unlike.
(vii) The give heterogeneous ideas.
Metaphysical Poets Qualities :
 They were honest , original thinker
 They analyse their feelings and experiences
 Aware of life, concerned with death , burial descent into hell
 They hoped for immorality
John Donne (1537-1631)
 He was the leader of Metaphysical School of poets.
 His main work was to deliver religious sermons ,he wrote poetry of high order.
 His poetry is divided into 3 parts
i) Amorous ii) Metaphysical iii)
Satirical

Robert Herrick (1591-1674):

 He wrote amorous as well as religious verse , but he is famous for his love poems
Thomas Carew ( 1598-1639):
 He was a finest lyric writer
 He was superior in fine workmanship

Richard Crashaw ( 1613?-1649);

 He was a fundamentally religious poet.
Henry Vaughan (1622-1695);
 He was equally at home in sacred as well as secular verse.

George Herbert (1593-1633

 Famous for his clarity of expression and transparency of conceits.

Lord Herbert;
 He is best remembered for his autobiography.

The Cavalier Poets:

 They were followers of Ben Johnson.
  Cavalier means a royalist ,one who fought on the side of the king during the civil war
.this name was stuck to them .
 They wrote about their trivial subjects .

John Milton (1608-1674) :

 A pure religious man,have a puritan Spirit.
 Milton was superbly egoistic, his verse was harmonious and musical
 Have artistic merit of high degree , He combined himself the spirit of Renaissance
and the Reformation.
 He was great scholar of classical as well as Hebrew literature.
 He may called the last Elizabethan
Milton’s Poetry:
His poetry was Lyrical,the important poems of Early period are:
(i) The Hymn: which his lyrical genius ,he wrote at age of twenty one.
(ii) L’Allego : description of rural scenes and marry mood of writer
(iii) II Penseroso: Recreation in Spring and Autumn and written in serious mood
(iv) Lucidas: A pastrol elegy written on death of Edward King ,it also contains criticism of
contemporary religion and politics.
(v) Comus: Merely Pastrol and idyllic and more serious and purposive tendency.
(vi) When the Assault was intended to the City: full of deeply felt emotions,and deeply moral
and didactic tone of later poetry
(vii) Paradise Lost: consists of casting out
from Heaven of fallen angels .and attempts-->
“To justify the ways of God to men”
(Viii) Paradise Regained: which deals with subject of Temptation in the wilderness is
written having puritanic austere and stoic qualities.
(Viii) Samson Agonistes : deals with an ancient Hebrew legend of Samson , champion of isreal
,and now slave among Philistines.its a greek tragedy.
JACOBEAN AND CAROLINE DRAMA:
 The was decadent ( decline to drama) because others could not show such originality.
 Outward show and trapping : they show the artificial style , don’t have character
development
 Long and rhetorical speeches: they focus on speeches instead of working of human
 Fine shades: instead of fine shades we found sentiments
 Dreadful deeds was created for just rhetorical effect
 Instead of Courage they shows resignation to fate
 Thomas Dekker :
 Grace and freshness
 He was popular dramatist because of his contemporaries and when portraying scene from
life , describing living people
 He found a touch of romanticism

John Fletcher:
 He create a workshop and he wrote plays with collaboration with other dramatists.
 He work with Francis Beaumont to write comedies
 He wrote comedies, The Scornful ladie
 Tragic comedies, Philaster
 Pure tragedies: The Maides Tragedy,A King and no King
JACOBEAN AND CAROLINE PROSE:
(i) They used prose in various ways as , narrative as well as a vehicle for philosophical
speculation and scientific knowledge.
(ii) They don’t used it as harmonious and pliable instrument as Elizabethan were.
(iii) Authorised Version of the Bible : bible become supreme it has simple ,plain and
natural Style.
Francis Bacon :
 He has Renaissance spirit as well.
 He was lawyer by profession possessing great intellectual gifts.
 He has aphoristic style ,and his wisdom in epigrams contains rich experience of life .
 He is best known for his Essays in which he given view about managing men and getting on
successfully in life .
 He wrote Henry VIII a piece of scientific history
 The Advancement of Learning : which is a brilliant popular exposition of cause of scientific
investigation .
During This Period :
 We found rich instruments capable of expressing all type of ideas -scientific,
religious,philosophic ,poetic, and personal

The Restoration Period ( 1660-1700)

 In English literature period form 1660 to 1700 is called Period of Restoration , because
monarchy was restored in England and Charles II came back to became king
 Restoration Period began to imitate French writers and especially their vices.

Features of Restoration Period:

There are two features of this period
(i) Realism:
Took ugly shape at start but later more concerned with vices and virtues .
It create a coarse and inferior type of literature.
(ii) Preciseness:
It emphasised directness and simplicity of expression and extravagance .
(iii) Reasoning
(iv) Short , Clear-cuts sentences
(v) Royal Society.
(vi) Classical Style
Restoration Poetry :
John Dryden:
 He was satirical , realistic , and write Heroic couplet
His poetry is divided into 3 heads
(i) Political Satires
(ii) Doctrinal Poems
(iii) The Fables

 Two doctrinal poems were Religious Laici and The Hind and the Panther
The Fables
 It was in narrative form,we rank Dryden as best story teller in verse in England.
Poetry of Dryden:
We found following characteristics in its poetry .
(i) Formalism
(ii) Intellectual precision
(iii) Argumentative skill
(iv) Realism
(v) Eloquence
(vi) Satirist
(vii) Reasoner in verse
(viii) Use of heroic couplet
Restoration Drama :
 The drama in England after 1660 ,called the Restoration drama,showed entirely new trends
on account of long break with past.
 It emphasis on prose as medium of expression , intellectual , realistic, and critical approach
to life and its problems.
 Its appeal was confined to upper strata of society.
 Comedy of Manner: Which portrayed the sophisticated life of dominant class of society.
Tragedy :
 Heroic Tragedy : which dealt with themes of epic magnitude.
 Hero and heroine has superhuman qualities.
 It purpose was didactic.
 Dryden was chief protagonist and writer of heroic Tragedy ( 1660-1678)
Dryden Altered Attitude :
 He change Writing from typical heroic Tragedy to.
 Drops rhyme and questions the validity of three unities
 He give up literary rules
 He turns away from conventions of heroic Tragedy ,is that he doesn’t give happy ending in
plays.
Restoration Prose :
 English prose become a medium of expressing clearly and precisely average ideas and
feeling about their miscellaneous matters for which prose really meant.
 They use it for plain, narrative and handing of practical business.
i) Dryden work Essay of Dramatic Poesy ; he wrote plain , simple and exact style ,Free from all
exaggeration .

John Bunyan :
 He was greatest story teller
 Greatest prose writer of this period.
 He aim to “ to lead men and women into God’s way”
 He was Religious and also master of fiction.
Prose of Bunyan:
 He clearly see the influence of Bible ( The Authorized Version )
 All his knowledge came from English Bible.
Eighteenth Century Literature ;
The Eighteenth Century is also called

1.Classical Age 2.Pseudo -Classicism 3. Augustan Age

4.Age of Reason or Age of Good Sense.
1.Classical age

 It is called Classical Age because the writers follows the “Classicism” of the ancient
writers .
 Writers rebelled against the exaggerated and fantastic style of writing .
2. Pseudo-classicism:
 They produce the false or sham classicism ( so called followers of homer and Virgil)
3. Augustan Age:
 It is called Augustan age because Augustan was their king during that reign.
4.Age of Reason or Age of Good Sense;

 People thought that they could stand on their own legs and can be guided in light of
their reason.
 It also assumed that the reasoning power of all men have always been equal.
Classicism and Romanticism :
a. Classicism :

It based on intellectually , deficient in emotions and It based on emotions and imagination in place
imagination of intellectually
It was a town poetry It was interested in nature and rustic
life rather than town life
It had no love for mysterious , supernatural and dim past It had love for mysterious supernatural and
dim past
Its style for formal and artificial It insisted on simple and natural form of
expression.
It was written in closed couplet It encouraged all sort of
metrical experiment.
It was fundamentally didactic Expression of the writer’s experience
for its own sake
It insisted the writer to follow the rules and imitate the Liberty of the poet to choose
standard model of writting. theme and manner of writing

The Literary Devices :

Allegory:
The story ,poem or picture that can be interpreted to reveal the hidden meaning , typically a
moral or political one.

Pastoral Poem :
A literary work or picture portraying rural life.

Petrarcan Model :
It was named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca.

Blank Verse :
The verse without rhyme especially that which uses iambic pentameter .

Prose :
Refers to simply and written Piece of work that is built on sentences rather than lines or verses
Tragedy :
A play dealing with tragic events and having unhappy ending specifically one concerning the
downfall of main character.

Chronicles :
Historical events in order of their occurrence.

Spenserian stanza :
The stanza used by Spenser in Farie Queen consisting of 8 lines iambic pentameter rhyming
scheme ababbcbcc

Metres :
The rhythmic pattern of poetic lines

Pastoral elegy.
Poem about both death and idyllic rural life

Epic Poem
Long narrative poem usually about heroic deeds and events .

Heroic Tragedy
Written in rhyming pentameter ,the couplets are quite artificial both in content and manner

Heroic Couplet :
Group of two lines rhyming at the end both the lines being iambic pentameter

Pathetic Fallacy
Which established a connection between the appearance of nature with the mood of the
artist.

Alliteration.
A number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close

Together in a series.
TOPIC TIMELINE OF LITERATURE

Name: Salman Siraj

Roll No: BSF2004775
Subject: History of English Literature

4th Semester

Submitted To: Ma’am Bushra Saeed

 The Romantic Age (1798-1824)
Introduction :
"This age is also called the age of revolutions due to American Revolution of 1776
and French revolution (the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity)."
 The poetry of this age is many ways the poetry of war
 Society was changing becoming industrial rather than agriculture
 For Augustans, the feelings and imaginations were dangerous (the head controlled
the heart)
 For Romantics reason and intellect were dangerous (the heart controlled the head)
 Individual spirit rather than an ordered society
 The government didn't like this spirit
 The most fruitful period in history of English literature
 The revolt against the classical school reached its climax
 Most popular English poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Keats belong to
this period
 Period starts from 1798with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and
Coleridge

The Famous preface Of Wordsworth :

The famous preface which Wordsworth wrote as a manifesto of the new form of poetry
which he and Coleridge introduced in opposition to the poetry of the Classical school

 In the preface to the first edition words worth didn't touch upon any other
characteristic of romantic poetry except the simplicity and naturalness of its diction
 In the preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads the Wordsworth explains
his theories of poetic imagination
 Wordsworth choose the language of common people as a vehicle of his poetry
 And this was the first point of attack of artificial and formal style of classical school
of poetry
 The other point at which Wordsworth attacked the old school was its insistence on
the town and artificial way of life which prevailed there
 They attacked the supremacy of heroic couplet and substituted it by simple and
natural diction, by diverting the attention of the poet from the artificial town life to
the life in the woods, mountains and villages

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 Naturalism and Supernaturalism

Wordsworth’s naturalism included love for nature as well as for man living in simple and
natural surrounding

 Coleridge's supernaturalism, established the connection between the visible world

and the other word which is unseen
 In his work The Ancient Mariner, he treated the supernaturalism in such a manner
that it looked quite natural.
 Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Scott belong First Romantic Generation
 These poets of the 1st romantic generation were not in conflict with the society of
which they were a part. They sang about the feelings and emotions which were
shared by the majority of their countrymen
 The poets like Byron, Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt belong to Second Generation
of Romantic Writers
 The 2nd generation game came in conflict with the social environment with which
their predecessors were in moral harmony.
 But the poets of the two generations of romanticism shared the same literary beliefs
and ideals. They were all innovators in the forms well as in the substance of their
poetry.
 The classical age was the age of prose while the romantic age was a age of poetry
and it became the proper medium for the expression of emotions and imaginative
stability of the artist
 The human spirit began to derive new richness from outward objects and
philosophical ideas. The poets began to draw inspiration from several natural
resources like mountains and lakes.
 Some critics call romantic revival as the Renaissance of Wonder because all these
themes produced a sense of wonder which had to be properly conveyed in literary
form.
 Classicism laid stress upon the impersonal aspects of the life of the mind, the new
literature openly shifts the center of art, bringing it back towards what is most
proper and particular in each individual. It is the product of the fusion of the two
faculties of the artist - his sensibility and imagination.

Romantic Poetry

 Antithesis of classical poetry

 Romantic poets had different views on all subjects unlike the classical poets who
agreed on the nature and form of poetry

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 It is difficult to find a common denominator which links such poets as Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Shelley and Keats. The reason of this was that there was
abundance and variety of genius.
 The evenness, equanimity and uniformity of classical age was broken and each poet
of romantic period stands for himself and has his own well-defined individuality.
 The only common characteristic that we find in them is their intense faith in
imagination.
 The classical writers quotes were more interested in the visible word while the
romantic quotes and inner call
 They appealed not to the logical mind but to complete self in the whole range of
intellectual faculties, senses and emotions
 Coleridge conceived the world of facts as an 'inanimate cold world'
 Wordsworth also thought with Coleridge that they imagination was the most
important gift that the poet can have. He agreed with him that this activity
resembles that of God. Just as God creates his universe the poet also creates a
universe of his own by his imagination.
 Wordsworth differs from Coleridge in his conception of the external world
 For him the World is not dead but living and has its own soul. Man’s task is to enter
into communion with this soul.
 Shelley was no less attached to the imagination and give it no less a place in his
theory poetry
 Keats had passionate love for the visible word and at times his approach was highly
sensuous.
 Each romantic poet gave his own interpretation of the universe, the relation of God,
the connection between the visible and the invisible, nature and man, as he saw it
through the power of his imagination

Poets of the Romantic Age

 Classified into 3 groups

 The Lake Poets (Consisting of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey)
 The Scott group (including Campbell and Moore)
 The group comprising Byron, Shelley and Keats
1) The Lake Poets
 The lake poets formed a 'school’ in the sense that they worked in the close
cooperation and their lives were spent partly in the Lake district.
 Only Wordsworth was born there but all the three lived there for a shorter or the
longer period
 The held many of poetic beliefs in common
 Wordsworth and Coleridge lived together for a long time andproducedthe Lyrical
Ballads by joint efforts in 1798.
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 I.William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

 Greatest poet of romantic period and credit of originating the romantic movement
goes to Him.
 He refused to abide by any poetic convention and rules, and forged his own way in
the realm of poetry. He stood against many generations of great poets and critics,
like Dryden, Pope and Johnson and made way for a new type of poetry.

Works
 Wordsworth wrote large number and variety of lyrics, in which he can stir the
deepest emotions by the simplest means.
 Besides lyrics Wordsworth wrote number of sonnets of rare merit like To Milton,
Westminster Bridge, The World is too much with us, in which there is a fine
combination of the dignity of thought and language
 In his odes as Ode to Duty and Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, he gives
expression to his high ideals and philosophy of life.
 Wordsworth was not merely a lyrical poet; he just claims to be the poet of Man, of
Nature, and of Human Life  He discovered that there is an innate harmony
between Nature and Man.
 According to Wordsworth man is a part of Nature.
 Wordsworth is famous for his lyrics, sonnets, odes and short descriptive poems.
II.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

 The genius of Coleridge was complementary to that of Wordsworth.

 Unlike Wordsworth who dealt with naturalism which was an important aspect of the
romantic movement, Coleridge made the supernatural his special domain which was
an equally important aspect
 Like Wordsworth he also begins to think differently after the excesses of the
Revolution. This change of thought is shown in his beautiful poem France: an Ode
(1798) which he himself called his 'recantation’. After that he, like Wordsworth,
began to support the conservative cause.
III.Robert Southey (1774-1843)

 Third poet of the group of Lake Poets.  Unlike Wordsworth and Coleridge he
lacked higher qualities of poetry and his achievement as a poet is not much.
 He was a voracious reader and voluminous writer.  His most ambitious poems
Thalaba, The Curse of Kehan, Madoc and Roderick are based on the mythology of
different nations.
 He also wrote a number of ballads and short poems, of which the best known is
about his love for books (My days among the Dead are past.) But he wrote for better
prose than the poetry and his admirable Life of Nelson remains a classic.

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 He was made the Poet Laureate in 1813 and after his death in 1843 Wordsworth
held this title.
2) The Scott Group
The poets belonging to this group are Sir Walter Scott, Campbell and Thomas
Moore.

1. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

 Was the first to make romantic poetry popular among the masses?
 His Marmion and Lady of the Lake gained greater popularity than the poems of
Wordsworth and Coleridge which are read by a select few.
 Scott’s poetry appeals on account of its vigor, youthful abandon vivid pictures, heroic
characters, rapid actions and succession of adventures.
After 1815 Scott wrote little poetry and turned to prose romance in the form of the
historical novel in which field he earned great and enduring fame.
Thomas Campbell (1774-1844) and Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

 These were prominent among minor poets who following the vogue of Scott wrote
versified romance
 Campbell wrote Gertrude of Wyoming (1809) in the Spenserian stanza, which
doesn't hold so much interest today.
 The poems of Moore are now old-fashioned and have little interest for the modern
reader.  Though Moore enjoyed immense popularity during his time, he is now
considered as a minor poet of the romantic age.
3) The Younger Group

 This group belongs to Byron, Shelley and Keats

 They were children of revolution with having their humanitarian ardor
 They were less national and against the historic and social traditions England
 Keats was more interested in Greek mythology
 These three poets of second generation of Romanticism died young
 Byron  36
 Shelley 30
 Keats  25
 Spirit of youthful freshness us associated with their Poetry.

1) Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

 Most popular of all the romantic poets

 Only one who made an Impact on the continent both in his own day and afterwards
 But his poetry doesn’t possess the high excellence like Keats and Shelley, now he has
a lower position in the hierarchy of romantic Poets
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 Called as the ‘Romantic Paradox’ only romantic poet who showed regard for the
poets of 18th century and ridiculed his own contemporaries in his early satirical poem
(English Bards and Scottish Reviewers (1809))
 After the publications of the first two Cantos of Childe Harold Pilgrimage (1812), 
this work made him instantly famous, he said “I woke one morning and found
myself famous”
 Byronic hero became very popular among the readers
 Byron was the most egoistical
 Of all the romantic traits, he represents the revolutionary iconoclasm at its worst,
that is why he came in conflict with the world around him
 Byron doesn’t enjoy a high reputation as a poet because of his slipshod and careless
style.
2) Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Byron was the greatest interpreter of revolutionary iconoclasm; Shelley was the
revolutionary idealist, a prophet of hope and faith.
Byron’s genius was destructive, while Shelley was constructive
Byron’s motive impulse was pride, while Shelley’s was love.
In his early days Shelley came under the influence of William Godwin's Political Justice

Famous Works
Queen MabFirst long poem, when he was 18, In which he condemns Kings,
Government, Church, Property, Marriage and Christianity.

Alastor (1816) Poem, he describes his pursuit of an unattainable ideal of Beauty

Julian Meddalo (1818)he draws his own portrait contrasted with last of Byron
The Cenci A poetic drama, deals with the terrible story of Beatrice who, the victim of
Father’s lust, takes his life in revenge
Hallas  A lyrical drama, in which he sings of the rise of Greece against the Ottoman
yoke
Epipsychidion In which he celebrates his Platonic love for a beautiful young Italian
girl
Adonais Best known of Shelley’s long poems, an elegy

The Triumph of Life  an unfinished masterpiece

 Shelley’s reputation as a poet lies mainly in his lyrical power.

 Greatest lyrical poet of England
 Constructive as well as destructive part of Nature
 As the poet of Nature, he was inspired by the spirit of love

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 4) John Keats (1795-1821)

 Most perfect of the romanticists + Pure poet (Art for Art Sake)
 Died Early
 Keats didn’t take much notice of the social, political and literary turmoilbut
devoted himself to the worship of beauty
 He came of a poor family
 First volume of poems appeared in 1817 And his first long poem Endymion in 1818,
(which opened with the memorable line ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’)
 Faced criticism against this poem
 Father died when he was only nine, mother and brother died of tuberculosis, himself
suffering from deadly disease
 All these misfortunes were intensified by his disappointment in love for Fanny
Browne whom He loved passionately
 But remained undaunted
 Brought out his last volume of poems in the year 1820
 The poems of 1820 include 3 narratives, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Lamia,
Hyperion (unfinished epic) the Odes, La Bella Dame Sans Merci, and a few sonnets.
 Odes are famous, Ode to Autumn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn.
 Sensuousness, small no of poems but based on mature thinking and highly
appreciative.
 Highly philosophical ideas (A thing of beauty is a joy forever).

Prose-Writers of the Romantic Age

Though the romantic period specialized in poetry, there also appeared a few prose
writers- Lamb, Hazlitt and De-Quincey.
There was no revolt of the prose writers against the 18th century comparable to that of
poets, but a change had taken place in the prose style also.
Some romantic poets- Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron wrote excellent prose in their
critical writings, letters and journals
i.
1) Charles Lamb (1775-1834)
One of the most loveable personalities in English literature
Lived a very humble, honest and most self-sacrificing life
Never married devoted himself to the care of his sister Mary.
He wrote about himself

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In his Essays of Elia (1823) and Last Essays (1833),  he revealed himself, his quaint
whims and experiences, and cheerful and heroic struggle which he made against
misfortunes.
Unlike Wordsworth who was interesting in natural surrounding, Lamb was born and
lived in the midst of the London street  was deeply interested in the city crowd and it’s
pleasures.
He belongs to the category of intimate and self revealing essayists.
The style of Lamb is described as 'quaint' strangeness and old fashioned in every
essay Lamb’s style changes.
In his hands essay reached the highest perfection

“Prince among English Essayists”

2) William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

 Just opposite to Lamb
 Man of violent temper, with strong likes and dislikes
He became in conflict with the Government because he worshipped the Napoleon as a
hero, at the time when England was engaged in a bitter struggle against Napoleon

 His friends left him on his aggressive nature, and at the time of his death only Lamb
stood by him.
 He wrote many volumes of essays  the most effective is The Spirit of the Age
(1825),  in which he gives critical portraits of a number of his famous
contemporaries.
 In this work he was outspoken and fearless in his expression.
 His style has force, brightness and individuality  it is the reflection of his
personality—outspoken, straightforward and frank.

3) Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)

Famous as a writer of ‘impassioned prose'
Highly intellectual Writer
Mostly he wrote in the form of articles for journals.  He dealt with all sorts of subjects-
about himself and his friends, life in general, art, literature, philosophy and religion.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater,  autobiographical sketches

 Joan of Arc most perfect historical essay

 On the Knocking at The Gate in Macbeth

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 He wrote scholarly articles on Goethe, Pope, Schiller and Shakespeare
 Wrote a number of essays on science and theology
 In all his writings he asserts his personal point of view;  he was a man of strong
prejudices, likes and dislikes.
 His approach is always original and brilliant which straightway captures the attention
of the reader.

Novelists of the Romantic Age

The great novelists of romantic age are Jane Austen and Scott, but before them there
appeared some novelists who wrote novels of ‘terror’ or the “Gothic Novels”

 The origin of this type of fiction can be ascribed to Horace Walpole’s (1717-1797)
The Castle of Otranto (1746).  (Here the story is set in medieval Italy and it
includes a gigantic helmet that can strike dead its victims, tyrants, supernatural
intrusions, mysteries and secrets).
 The Gothic Novel
 Mrs. Ann Radcliffe (1764-1833) was the most popular writers of the ‘terror’ or
‘Gothic’ novel during the Romantic Age,
 Five Novels the best known are The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian.She
initiated the mechanism of terror tale
 Her novels became very popular
 The Mysteries of Udolpho relates the story of an innocent and sensitive girl who falls
in the hands of a heartless villain named Montoni. He keeps her in a grim and
isolated castle full of mystery and terror.
 There were a few other novelists who earned popularity by writing such novels. They
were Mathew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), who wrote The Monk, Tales of Terror and
Tales of Wonder, and Charles Robert Maturin whose Melmoth the Wanderer exerted
great influence in France.
 A Gothic Novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818), (the wife of P.B.Shelley) can
be seen as one of the first modern science fiction novels.

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Jane Austin brought good sense and balance to English novel which during the romantic
age had become too emotional and undisciplined.
 Living a great life she published her six novels anonymously, which have now placed
her among the front rank of English novelists.
 She did for the English literature the same what the lake poets did for English poetry
 She refined and simplified it making it a true reflection of English life.
 Like Wordsworth who had tried to make a poetry natural and truthful, Jane Austen
also from the time she started writing her first novel Pride and Prejudice, she
presents the English countries society exactly as it was, in opposition to the romantic
extravagance of Mrs.Radcliffe and her school.
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 Jane Austen wrote 6 novels Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma,
Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
 Of these Pride and Prejudice is the best and most widely read of her novels. Emma,
Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park are now placed among the front rank of
English novels.
 As a novelist Jane Austen worked in a narrow field. She was the daughter of a
humble clergyman living in a little village. Except for short visits to neighboring
places, she lived a static life but she had such a keen power of observation that the
simple country people became the characters for novels.
 She had achieved wonderful perfection in that narrow field on account of her acute
power of observation, her fine impartiality, and her quiet, delicate and ironic humor.
 Novel writing was a part of her everyday life.
 During her life she didn’t receive the appreciation she deserved  gained fame After
death
 Among her contemporaries only Scott, realized the greatness and worth of her work.
 Died at the age of 42.

(3) Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

 Scott’s qualities as a novelist were different from Jane Austen
 Jane Austen is precise & exact in whatever she writes while Scott is diffusive
&digressive
 Jane Austen deals with the rural life free from high passions, struggles & great
actions while Scott deals with the chivalric, exciting, romantic& adventurous life of
highlanders
 During his first 5 or 6 years of novel writing, he wrote novels based on personal
observation, these are

Guy Mannering The Antiquary Old Mortality The Heart of Midlothian

 Historical novels are

Ivanhoe (1819) Kenilworth (1821) Quentin Durward (1823) The Talisman
(1825)

The Monastery (1820) St. Ronan’s Well (1823)

 In all these novels score reveals himself as a skilled storyteller

 He beautifully portrayed the historical characters
 He is a superb master of the dialogue which is in variable true to character
 Scored Scott is the first English writer of the historical novel, he is known as the
father of historical novel.
 Scott was the first novelist in Europe who made the scene an essential element in
action.
 He chooses the place so well and describes it so perfectly that the action seems
almost tope the result of natural environment.
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  He was the first novelist to recreate the past in such a manner that the men and
women of the bygone ages, and the old scenes became actually living, and throbbing
with life.

The Victorian Age (1832-1900)

 This age should correspond with the reign of Queen Victoria, which extends from
1837 to 1901, but officially the Victorian Age in English literature started from 1832 ,
five years earlier, literary reason was that, in 1832 Tennyson’s first important volume
Poems, with the publication of this work the Victorian Age formally starts.

Early Victorian Period (1832-1870) Later Victorian Period (1870-1900)

Earlier period was the period of middle class They came into prominence after
supremacy, age of ‘laissez-faire’ , extends from 1832 1870.
to 1870
Writers of this period were Tennyson, Browning, Writers of this period were Rossetti,
Mathew Arnold, Carlyle, Ruskin, Thackeray and Swinburne, Morris, George Eliot,
Dickens. Meredith, Hardy, Newman &Pater.
All these novelists and prose writers form a Pater came out with his pure
homogeneous group. purpose of Art for Art’s sake,

Homogeneous means there was no individual This approach of Pater was opposed
difference b/w them, they exhibit same approach to to moral approach of earlier prose-
contemporary problems & same literary, moral & writers
social values
 Romantic Era ended in 1820 & Victorian Era started in 1832, the gap between which
is from 1820 to 1832 (18 years) is known as barren age.
 Also reform act, 1832 passed in same year. These 12 years were the years of
suspended animation in politics
 The literary career of Thackeray began about 1837, & Browning published his
Dramatic Lyrics in 1842.
 Victorian Age is so long and complicated so for the sake of convenience it is divided
into 2 periods-Early Victorian Period and Later Victorian Period

 Thus we see a clear difference b/w the two periods of Victorian literature
 But fundamentally they belong to one group
 Firstly they all were the children of the new age of democracy (individualism &
Industrialization)
 Secondly all of them were severe critics of their age instead of being in sympathy
with its spirit
 It was their insistence on the rational elements of thought which make them great
writers

11
  It was fundamentally an age of realism rather than of romance
A continuation of Romantic Age
 Victorian age in English literature was a continuation of the romantic age because
the romantic age came to a sudden and unnatural end due to premature deaths of
romantic writers
 The spirit of romanticism continued to influence the innermost consciousness of
Victorian age
 In fact After 1870 we find that the romantic inspiration was again increasing in the
shape of the Pre-Raphaelite &aesthetic movements
 The political reasons were also the cause of survival and prolongation of romanticism
in the Victorian age which was otherwise opposed to it.
 Victorian age exhibits a very interesting and complex mixture of two opposing
elements – Classicism &romanticism. Basically it was inclined towards classicism on
account of its rational approach with the problems of life.

Characteristics of Victorian Poetry

The main features of the Victorian Poetry

ii. Conflict between Religion and Science

 The most remarkable characteristics of Victorian poetry is its conflict between
religion and science.
 The leading poets of this age reacted to this religious skepticism through their works
like Robert Browning (Fra Lippo Lippi) & Tennyson (In Memoriam(1850))
 The scientific approach to nature and human became a central theme in Victorian
Poetry.
iii. Showing the Responsibility
 Victorian poets took a stand of social reform.
 They raised voice for indiscrimination against the commoner masses that had been
done due to industrialization.
iv. Use of Sensory Elements
 Victorian poets also used imagery and senses to convey the chaos or struggle
between religion and Science, and ideas about Nature and Romance.
Pessimism

 The poets wrote on isolation, despair, doubt and general pessimism that surrounded
the era. On the surface, Victorians seemed to enjoy the wealth and prosperity but
the feelings of uncertainty, Cynicism and self-doubt was reflected in the poems of

12
 this age. The issue of psychological isolation is common in almost all the great poems
of the Victorian Era.
Realism

 The Victorian Poets was quite realistic. Nature had lost its idealize position which
are more often found in the Romantic Age. In the Tennyson age, Nature had become
a source of leisure and inspiration for the poets.
Sentimentality

 The Victorians wrote about artistic creations thus giving way to deeper imaginations.
Poets like Alfred Tennyson, Emily Bronte prominently used the element of
sentimentality in their poems.
Development of Dramatic Monologue

 Though the Victorians used medieval settings, forms and themes, many other forms
of poetry also held prominence during the Victorian Era. The dramatic Monologue
became one of the most popular gifts of Victorian Poetry to English literature.
(Tennyson and Browning). Apart from the famous Dramatic monologue, the
Victorian poets also explored Sonnets, Epics, Elegies and Ballads.

Poets of the Early Victorian Period

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

 Most representative poet of the Victorian age

 His poetry is a record of the intellectual and spiritual life of the time
 He was impressed by the new discoveries because he was a student of science and
philosophy
 Conflict between religion and science (Darwin's theory of evolution)
 Darwin's theory (the survival of the fittest) became the reason of conflict between
science and religion, doubt and faith, materialism and spirituality.
 These two voices of the Victorian age are perpetually heard in Tennyson’s works.
 In his work In Memoriam, we read the great conflict between faith and doubt.
 His work Lockslay Hall (1842), he reflects the restless spirit of ‘young England’ and
his faith in science, commerce and progress of mankind.

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

 There is a optimism in all his poetry

 It is in fact because of his powerful will and optimism that Browning is given
preference over Tennyson whose poetry betrays weakness and helpless pessimism.

13
  Browning’s characteristics like his boundless energy, his cheerful courage and his
faith in life give a strange vitality to his poetry.
 In an age when the minds of men were assailed by doubt, Browning spoke the
strongest words of hope and faith

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be.

The last of life, for which the first was made. (Rabbi Ben Ezra 1864) (Dramatic Monologue)

 Tennyson’s genius is lyrical, while Browning’s is dramatic  his greatest poems are
written in dramatic monologue
 In his works Browning himself is the central character and he uses the hero as his own
mouthpiece.

Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)

 He was not great as Tennyson and Browning

 Unlike these two poets who came under the influence of romantic poets, Arnold,
was a great admirer of Wordsworth but he reacted against the romanticism of
Shelley and keats.
 He emphasis on ‘correctness’ in poetry (Classicism)
 Greatest critic of poetry in Victorian period
 Among his early poems that sonnet on Shakespeare deserves the highest place.
Arnold wants poetry to be plain and severe, as a critic (seriousness in purpose) like the
poetry of Homer, Dante and Shakespeare.

Poets of Later Victorian Period

In the later Victorian period movement took place in English poetry (like new romantic
revival) which was called Pre-Raphaelite movement and the poets were Rossetti,
Swinburne and Morris.

 These poets but simply interested in beauty  quite satisfied with the beauty of
diction, beauty of rhythm and the beauty of imagery in poetry
 They were not interested in contemporary movement of thought like Arnold and
Tennyson’s poetry
 They made use of legends of the Middle ages not as a vehicle for moral teaching but
simply as stories
 No conscious theory in their work as there was in case of Arnold’s poetry.
 They did not regard poetry as being prophetic are being mainly philosophical, their
poetry did not concern itself with intellectual complications (after the manner of
Browning), not with social conditions.

14
  It was not a intellectual moment but it brought back the idea that poetry deals with
modes of thought and feeling that cannot be expressed in prose.
 It gave greater importance to personal feeling over thought.
 It also introduced symbolism and insisted on simplicity of expression and directness
of sensation.
 The fleshly images used by these poets were full of mysticism, but the Victorians
who considered them as merely sensuous were shocked by them.

The Victorian Novel and its Characteristics

 Introduction
 Industrialization in Victorian Era
 Novel flourish
Famous Novelists are Charles Dickens, Bronte Sisters and Oscar Wilde

 Literature of this age shows literary past as well as beginning of modernity

 Dominant genre is Novel
 Walter Scott made the novel respectable and readable
 Tradition of 3-Volume Novel  facility for poor Class
 Installments enable the poor to purchase Novel

The novelists of the Victorian era:

 Accepted middle class values

 Problems of individual’s adjustment
 Emphasized middle class characters
 Portray hero as a rational man

Victorian Novel appealed to readers because of its:

Realism

Description of everyday world

Introduction of characters who were blends of virtue and vice
Attempts to display natural growth of personality
Expression of emotions: love, humor suspense, melodrama, pathos (deathbed scene)

The Victorian Novel featured several developments in narrative technique:

Full description and exposition

15
Authorial essays
Multi plotting several central characters

Major Victorian Novelists

Novelists of Early Victorian Period

Charles Dickens

 Most successful of English Victorian novelists, a master of sentiment a reformer

We admire Dickens for his:

 Fertility of character creation

 Depiction of childhood and youth
 Comic creations
 Dickens was an idealist; his idealism is found in A Tale of Two Cities.
 Another phase of Dickens’s idealism was his implicit belief that this is the best of all
the possible worlds
 The most delightful manifestation of the idealism is his humor.
 All his characters are humorous
 Besides being an idealist, was also a realist.
 Dickens me justly be regarded as one of the foremost reformers of this age.

Major Works:

 A Tale of Two Cities

 Great Expectations
 A Christmas Carol most popular Christmas story in English speaking world
David Copperfield essentially autobiographical and Dickens’ own favorite novel.

William Thackery
 His chief subject is contrast between human claim and human weakness (flaws of
human)
 He focused at portraying his own upper middle class social rank
His major and famous work is Vanity Fair

 He was more interested in the manners and morals of the aristocracy.

 Unlike Dickens who came of a poor family, Thackery belongs to a rich family.
 Dickens were more interested in plain, common people while Thackery was more
concerned with high society
 Dickens was romantic and emotional and interpreted the word largely through his
imagination while Thackery was a realist and moralistand judged solely by
observation and reflection

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  If we take the novels of both together they give us a true picture of all classes of
English society in the early Victorian period.
 Thackery was a realist who paints life as he sees it.
 Thackery is superb and he delights the reader by his natural, easy and refined style,
 but the quality of which Thackeray is most remembered as a novelist is the
creation of living characters.

Novelists of Later Victorian Period

Thomas Hardy

 As Dickens and Thackery concerned with the behavior and problems of people in a
given social background, which Hardy also described in detail
 Thomas Hardy preferred to go directly for the elemental in human behavior with a
minimum of contemporary social detail
 Readers assume he is a pessimist but he called himself a social reformer, who wants
hopefully for a better world.

Major Works

 Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891)

 Jude the Obscure (1895)  The revolt in Jude and Obscure against indissoluble
Victorian marriage aroused such a storm of protest over its religious pessimism and
sex themes that Thomas Hardy returned thereafter to poetry.

 Hardy s attitude to life is pessimistic and he has written tragedies

 Most of the setting of his novels is at the place named Wessex
 Though he has dealt with a limited world, he has created hundreds of characters
many of whom are mere choral voices as in Greek drama.
 Chance plays too large apart in his works For this Hardy has been blamed by some
critics
 In the use of pathos Hardy is a past master
 He describes characters and scenes in such a manner that they get imprinted on the
memory.
 His greatest quality as writer is his sincerity and his innate sympathy for the poor and
the downtrodden.

George Eliot
 The real name of George Elliot was Marry Ann Evans.
 George Eliot is her pen name.
Her major works are
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 Scenes of Clerical Life (1857)  her 1st work, appeared when She was 38
 Adam Bede (1859)
 The Mill on the Floss(1860)
 Silas Marner (1861)
 Romola (1863)
 Middlemarch (1871-72)
 She portrays the reflection of the country life in England
 Having up thorough knowledge of the countryside and the country people, their
hierarchies and standards of value, she could give a complete picture of their life.
 In the hands of George novel to get modern form  every story drives its unity from
its plot
 Firstly, she introduced the unity of plot construction which was lacking in the English
novel before her  this was a great contribution of hers to the development of the
English Novel
 Secondly, George Eliot’s novels reflect more clearly the movement of contemporary
thought, than any other Novel
 In her novels she takes upon herself the role of a preacher and a moralizer 
establishes the moral law as the basis of human society and shows in individuals the
play of universal moral forces
 All the novels of George Elliot are examples of psychological realism
 The characters in her, unlike Dickens, develop gradually as we came to know them,
 they go from weakness to strength or from strength to weakness, according to the
works that they do and the thoughts that they cherish.
 Victorian Period also coincided with many scientific and technological advances (e.g.
Darwin’s Theory on the Origin of Species & also In 1867, Alexander Bell patented the
invention of Telephone)
 Victorian Literature is concerned with knowledge and specifically dangers of too
much knowledge.
 Victorian literature also explores poverty and conditions of working-class life. The
working classes in Victorian England endured very hard lives.
 Death rates were high, child labor was common and leaving conditions were low.
Dickens in most of his novels especially Oliver Twist wrote about these conditions of
working class life in Victorian England.

Main Characteristics
 Dominating literary form  Novel
 Writer and reader shared same opinions  Same muddle class
 Nobel was a kind of mirror which reflects society
 Woman  had money to buy books + plenty of time
 Privacy same room
 Novels in the installments  easy to purchase + shows interests of readers
 If readers stop buying, determining failure of novel and of its writer

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 Novelists represented society as they saw it  aware if industrialization  ‘didactic’
was dominant aim of most of the novels
 Division between good and evil characters (retribution & punishment)
 Plot of the novels very long  many sub-plots (adventures of main characters and
also those of secondary ones)

Victorian Prose and Prose Writers

 Era of great political, social, economic and religious activities
 This era shows growing economics rift (gap) b/w the poor and the rich, and the
scientific discoveries and inventions shook the faith on God & religion
 All this created a sense of doubt and despair in the minds of the common people

Characteristics of Victorian Prose

 Definite moral purpose
 All the major prose writers were primarily interested in imparting (convey, reveal)
message of their countrymen,  to them, literature was an instrument of social
reform,  they represented the problems of their own age with a fair amount of
realism
 Prose writers but against the materialistic tendencies of the age, and sought refuge
in the overcharged atmosphere of the middle age
 A note pessimism, doubt and despair
 Great essayists like Macaulay, Carlyle and Ruskin showed great faith in humanist
 Impact of science and questioning spirit of the people is apparent in Victorian Prose,
especially in prose writing of Darwin

Major Prose Writers of Victorian Age

Early Victorian Prose Writers
 Conservative by temperament and religious by inheritance,
 Most of the first generation Victorians were against the new forces of industry,
utilitarian ethics and political democracy,  they fought these forces

1) Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

 Critic, political thinker and historian
 Most ambitious philosophical work is “ Sartor Resartus”  he revealed his early
years of spiritual and body torments
 Became widely known after the publication of “French Revolution” and on Heroes
and Hero-Worship”
His major historical writing includes:

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The French Revolution1837, this book comprises a series of vivid world pictures rather
than sober history

 Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches(1845)

 The History of Frederick II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great (1858-65)

2) John Ruskin (1819-1900)

 Latest prose writer greatest prose writer
 Redskins work are off in men's volume and complexity

Major Works:

Modern Painters published in 1843  longest of his books,  it was a thesis written in
defense of the painting if Turner,  this work gain much attraction of readers
The Seven Lamps of Architecture  published in 1849;  here he expounded his views
on artistic matters

The Stones of Venice masterpiece both in style and thought

Unto this Last (1860),  comprises a series of articles on political economy

3) Lord Macaulay (1800-1859)

 Known essayist and historian
 His “essays” are indispensable for young people who are on the threshold of
intellectual advancement
 His “history” is also a Great contribution
 His biographical essays on eminent people of the time failed to create any significant
impression on readers

4) Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)

 Great critic and Prose writers
Major Works:
The Preface
On Translating Homer

Essays and Criticism

 But his prose style is sometime tedious

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 Walter Pater, R.L. Stevenson and Oscar Wilde are also main prose writers of the age,
 wrote on a great variety of subjects,  they showed a great command over the
use of English Language

Later Victorian Prose Writers

 Second generation of prose writers were more conscious of the art
 They were indifferent to the theological, political and economic issues of their time,
unlike their predecessors, they made writing, the sole business of their life
 “Art for Art’s Sake” was their slogan
 They reacted against applied literature, or the prose of purpose, which debated
current issues or preached moral or political philosophies
 There was a return of nature on English prose of this age
 In the later Victorian period there were two great prose writers - Newman and
Pater. Newman was a central figure of Oxford movement, while Pater was an
aesthete, who inspired the leaders of the Aesthetic Movement in English poetry.

1) Cardinal John Henry Newman

 Essentially a religious man employed at classical way of writing Prose.
 His prose style is marked by lucidity, transparency, restrain and balance.
 His “Idea of a University” earned him great respect in the literary circle of the time.

2) Walter Pater
 Most significant prose writer
 His important works are “The Renaissance” and “Imaginary Portraits “

3) R.L. Stevenson
 Elements of imagination in later Victorian age are best exemplified in Essays of
Stevenson

Oxford movement
The Oxford movement was an attempt to recover a lost tradition. England had
become a protestant country in the 16th century under the reign of Elizabeth, and had
her own Church called the Anglican Church, which became independent of the control
of the pope at Rome. Before that England was a Catholic country. The Anglican Church
insisted on simplicity and didn't encourage elaborate ceremonies. In fact it became too
much rational having no faith in rituals and old traditions. Especially in the 18th century
in England religion began to be ruthlessly attacked by philosophers as well as scientists.

21
 The protagonists of the Oxford moment tried to show that the Middle Ages had
qualities and capacities which the modern lacked. Therefore they made an attempt to
restore those virtues by trying to recover the rituals and art of the medieval Church.

From another point of view the Oxford movement was an attempt to meet the
rationalist attack by emphasizing the importance of tradition, authority, and the
emotional element in religion. It resumed its connection with a medieval tradition.

Modern Literature (1900-1961)

 Starting from the beginning of the 20th century

 The most important characteristic of the modern literature is that it is opposed to
the general attitude to life and its problems adopted by the Victorian writers.
 The young people during the early years of 20th century regarded the Victorians age
as hypocritical, and the Victorian ideals as mean, superficial and stupid.
 Unlike their parents nothing was considered as certain everything was questioned
 Let the Victorians head considered as honorable and beautiful, their children and
grandchildren considered as mean and ugly
 Victorians accepted the voice of authority, and acknowledge the rule of expert in
religion, in politics, and literature and family life  they had the innate desire to
affirm and confirm rather than to reject or question the opinions of experts
 Victorians believe in the truths revealed in the Bible and accept the new scientific
theories (Darwin and others),  While the 20thcentury minds didn't take anything
for granted, they questioned everything.
 Another characteristic of Victorianism was an implicit faith in the permanence of
19th century institutions, both secular and spiritual. The Victorians believed that
their family life, their constitution, the British Empire and the Christian religion were
based on sound footings and that they would last forever, this Victorian idea of
permanence of institutions was replaced among the early 20th century writers by the
sense that nothing is fixed and final in this world.
 The simple faith of Victorians was replaced by the modern men's desire to probe and
question
 George Bernard Shaw:
Attacked the old superstitions of religion as well as the new superstitions of
science, He challenged the voice of Authority and the rule of theexpert. He was
responsible for producing the interrogative habit of the mind in all spheres of life

(Modern reaction against the attitude of self-complacency of the Victorians)

(Disintegration of values)
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 There was also here failure or disintegration of values in the 20th century
 Material prosperity had become the basics of social standing
(Consciousness of social life) 

 There was also a more acute and pressing consciousness of the social life
 They realized that man was more of a social being than a spiritual being
(Family circle declined) 

 The Victorians believed in the sanctity of home life, but In the 20 th century the
sentiments for the family circle declined
 Young men and women who realized the prospect of financial independence refused
to submit to parental authority,  so love became much less of a romance and
much more of an experience
(Interrogation attitude and disintegration) 

 The impact of scientific thought was mainly responsible for the this attitude of
interrogations and disintegration of old values
 The physical and theological conclusions of great scientists like Darwin and hugs
created the impression on the new generation that the universe looks like a colossal
blunder
 They begin to look upon Nature not as a system planned by a divine architect, but as
a powerful, but blind, pitiless and wasteful force
(Age of Machine)

 The 20th century has become the age of machine

 Machine has dominated every aspect of modern life
 The modern man has now to live by the clock applying his energies not according to
mood and impulse, but according to the time scheme
(Readership & Welfare State)

 Another important factor which influenced modern literature was the large number
of people of the poor classes who were educated by the state
 The modern writers found in these readers a source of power and income, if they
could only appeal to them, and give them what they wanted
(No common grounds for readers & Writers)

 Great disadvantage under which the modern writers labor is that there is no come
ground on which day and their readers meet
 In that atmosphere of disillusionment, discontent and doubt, different authors show
different approaches to life
(20th century Literature is unique)

 The 20th century literature which is the product of this tension is unique
23
  It is fascinating at the same time very difficult to evaluate.

Modern Literature (1900-1961)

Political History:

 World War I (1914-1918)

 Emergence of new nations
 Women rights issues
Literary History :

 A major literary movement

 Started in early 20th century
 Influenced by Charles Darwin and Karl Max theories
 Psychoanalytic theories
 No connection with history
It is also called as:
The age of Disillusionment
The age of Machine
The age of Innovations

The age of Interrogations

The age of War
The age of disintegration
v. Features:
 Irony and satire as a tool of point out faults, problems within society
 Important characteristic of Modern Literature is opposition of the Victorian Writers.
 At the end of Victorian era, There was felt the need of the change in the sphere of
Literature
 The modern writers could no longer write in the old manner.
 Writers of twentieth saw the coming age of ‘Golden Age’
 Artistic experiment
 The Victorian Idea of permanency was replaced among the twentieth century writers
by the sense that nothing is fixed and final in the world.
 The Victorians believed in the sanctity of home life, but in the twentieth century the
sentiments of family life declined
 Science and arts really influenced the modern man
 Psychology also influenced.
 The psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud became more popular and widely read
24
Modern Poetry
 T.S Eliot was dominant figure
 The Waste Land was his famous poem
 Totally against Victorianism and Romanticism
 The twentieth century poets who were in revolt against Victorianism
 In the nineteenth century the main characteristic of poetry was preoccupation with
the dream world
 Under the new conditions modern poets could not take dream habits seriously
 Arnold was not qualified to give the new direction to the poetry
 Browning had no aptitude to understand the complexities of modern life
 It was essential that a new techniques of communication meaning be discovered
 Which brought about the movements known as imagism and symbolism in modern
poetry
 Modern poets exercise to get freedom in choice of new themes
 Use new and wide range of subjects, themes and issues.

Features of Modern Poetry

 Totally against the Victorian and Romantic poetry
 The disappearance of religious faith
 Regular meter have been discarded
 no regular rhyming scheme
 Juxtaposition of ideas
 Use of free verse
 Use of irony
 Use of metaphors

Movements in Modern Poetry

 Imagism
 Symbolism

Imagism
 Literary movement in early 20th Century
 This Movement was Active for 10 Years
 First revolt against the Victorian and Romantic Poetry
 The Imagists rejected the 19th century poetic form and language
 imagists rejected the sentiments of Victorian and Romantic Poetry

Characteristics:
 They use the common language
 They used exact words instead of decorative words
 They create new rhythms
25
 According to them poems are works of art and not pieces of emotions
 A revolutionary impact on English- language writing for the rest of the 20th Century.
 Leader of Imagists was Ezra Pound. Other poets were ES Flint, James Joyce etc.

Symbolism
 First started in France
 Representing things by means of symbols
 The symbolists found beauty in every detail of normal day by day life
 The symbolists does not consider any particular topic, diction or rhythm to be used
in poetry
 The technique of the symbolists is impressionistic not representational
 The Symbolists poetry in England came into prominence with the appearance of T.S
Eliot’s The Waste Land.
 Yeats, Joyce etc were Symbolists.

Modern Poets
1.Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)
 Born in USA
 Chief representative and a dominant figure
 Great critic
 Classicist
 A social philosopher
 Educated at Harvard University
His Works
Greatest poem is “The Waste Land”The poet surveys the desolate scene of the world
Other Poems are , ‘ Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ , ‘Burnt Norton’ , ‘East Coker’, ‘The
Dry salvages’

2.William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

 An Irish
 He was an anti-rationalist
 Founder of Celtic Movement
 A symbolist
 Due to World War 1 Yeats wrote in realistic Direction
His Works
The Wanderings of OisinThe Poet Pleads with the Elements powers a symbolism
poem
Other Poems are, ‘The Shadowy Waters’ , ‘The Winding Stair’ , ‘The Tower’ , ' The Wild
Swan at Coole’

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 Trench Poets or War Poets
 The poets who wrote about war
 Siegfried Sassoon
 Wilfred Owen

Other Famous Poets

 Robert Bridges
 G.M Hopkins
 A.E Houseman
 Ezra Pound

Themes
1. Satirical
2. War
3. Social Injustice
4. Arts
5. Human Rights
6. Life
7. Dissatisfaction
8. Futurism

Modern Novel
 Most important and popular literary medium
 Only literary form which can compete for popularity with the film and the radio.
 Onlyliterary form which meets the need of the modern world
 The modern man also under the influence of science is not particularly interested in
the metaphorical expression which is the characteristic of poetry.
 The modern man prefers the novel form
 The modern scientific discoveries, the new technologies
 The development of psychology
 The stream of consciousness technique became an important part of novelist
technique in the 20thcentury.
Characteristics
The modern novel is realistic. Realistic opposed to idealistic
The modern novel is Psychological
 Under the influence of Sigmund Freud theories the modern novel tends to reveal the
hidden inner motives behind people’s action
Stream of Consciousness
 This term was introduced by William James
 Used in Novels

27
  A technique that reveals the character completely historically as well as
psychologically
 Used by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce

Modern Novelists
 The Ancestors
 The Transitionalists
 The Moderns

The Ancestors
 Novelists who dominated the earlier part of 20th century

1. Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)

 Most intellectual
 Insisted that classical humanism should be discarded in favour of science and biology
No loyalty to the past
His Works
His novels divided into 3 parts

1. Scientific Romance
2. Domestic Novels
3. Sociological Novels

Scientific Romance
 Unrivalled Masterpieces of imaginative power
Novels
 Time Machine —hero invent time machine and accelerate the and project himself
into the future.
 The Island and Dr. Moreau (1896)
 The War of the Worlds’ (1898),  Theme of the invasion of Earth by Mars.
 The First Man in the Moon (1901)
 The Food of the Gods (1904)

Domestic NovelsFamiliar with the life in London.

Novels

 Kipps (1905)  Comedy of class instincts, full of satire and humour

 Tono Bungay (1909)  Disintegration of English society
 Anna Veronica (1909)
 Love and Mrs. Lewisham (1910)
 The History of Mr. Polly (1910)

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Sociological Novels
Social problems confronting the men of his time
Novels

 The New Machiavelli (1911)  story of political and sociological creeds.

 Mr. Britling sees it Through (1916)  Reaction of people to World War l.
 The Undying fire (1919)  Religious and satiric fantasy.

Other Ancestors…

 Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)

 Henry James(1843-1916)
 Joseph Conard (1857-1924)
 Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
 John Galsworthy (1867-1933)
 E. M. Forster (1879-1970)

The Transitionalists
From the beginning of the First World War new experiments were made in the field of
literature on account of the new forces which resulted from the war and which broke
the old tradition.

1. James Joyce (1822-1941)

 An Irish
 Joyce was a novelist of unique and extraordinary genius
 Symbolist
 Born linguist
 Highly gifted
 Worked in the ‘stream of consciousness’ technique

His Important Novels are:

 Ulysses (1922)  Masterpiece, epic, counterpart of Homer’s Odyssey, speech not

action-a token of humanity, does not present to life. Used stream of
consciousness
 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
 Exiles (1918)
 The Dubliners (1914)

2. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

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 Woman writer
 Used 'stream of consciousness' technique
 Impressed by Ulysses
 Gifted with poetic temperament

Her Novels

 The Voyage Out (1913)  Meaning of life

 Night and Day (1919)
 Jacob’s Room (1922) first serious experiment in the stream of consciousnes
 To the Lighthouse (1927)
 Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
 Orlando (1928)  Liveliest, fantasy.
 The Years (1937) Simpler form of fiction

Other Transitionalists

3. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

4. D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930
The Moderns
1. William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

 Novelist
 Dramatist
 Short story writer
 Naturalistic

Novels

 Liza of Lambeth (1897)  Naturalistic, Picture of life.

 Cakes and Ale (1930)
 The Moon and Sixpence (1919)¥.The Razor’s Edge (1944)  Maugham seeks the
meaning of life.

Other Moderns
2.J. B. Priestly

3. Charles Morgan

4. Graham Greene

Themes

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  War
 Social
 Woman Right
 Scientific

Modern Drama
 Drama suffered a decline for about two centuries after the death of Shakespeare and
his contemporaries
 But it revived in the last decade of 19th Century
 Two important factors were responsible for this revival
 The first was the influence of Ibsen (a Norwegian dramatist)
 G. B. Shaw influenced by him
 Discussed social and moral problems in a calm and sensible way
 This factor gave rise to Comedy of Ideas or Purpose
 Comedy of Ideas  inner conflict + Symbols

 Oscar Wilde treat the moral assumptions of the great Victorian age with frivolity
(lightness) and make polite fun if their smugness (egoistic, proud, self-satisfied)

 It gave rise to Comedy of Manners or the Artificial Comedy.

 Non-serious Comedy

 Under the influence of Ibsen, serious drama in England from 1890 ceased to deal
with themes remote in time and place,  he taught men that real drama must dealt
with human emotions
 Characters in their plays are constantly questioning, restless and dissatisfied

 (Example of Nora, the heroine in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, leaves her husband, 
feminist movement,  Liberty)

 These dramatists introduced Nature and Life in drama.

 The two important dramatists who took a predominant part in the revival of drama
in the last decade of the 19th century were George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde,
both Irishmen (Born in Ireland) , (Both are Nobel laureate in Literature, Nobel prize
in 1925 and 1932 respectively.
 The success of Oscar Wilde as a writer of comedy of manners was due to his being a
social entertainer
 George Bernard Shaw , the father of Comedy if Ideas, was a genius
 His intellectual equipment was far greater than that of any of his contemporaries.
The Contemporary Period (1939 to Today)
 The literature after the Second World War
 Second World War helped to break up the British Empire
 During this time British Influence grew weaker

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 People have become wealthier and have had a better standard if living, More
traveling, free time has increased and more people watch television as a main
source of information and entertainment
 More books are now read by more people than ever before

The Novel
 Al poetry was the most memorable literary form to come out of the first word bar
first word
 The novel was the form which told the stories of Second World War
 This was because of Mass Media (newspaper, cinema and radio) had changed the
way information and entertainment were given

The Novel in the 1950’s and 1960’s

 The voice of the lower class is heard in novels ( now state had responsibility to
provide education to poor as well)
 Woman writers like Muriel Spark and Doris Lessing show different way of writing
about society
 The genre of the detective novel has produced many women writers ( known as
Agatha Christie)
 Short story had continued to be popular

The Novel from 1970

 Novel took several directions
 The four main directions were
 Focus on Regional Voices
 Focus on Female Voices
 Focus on Foreign and local Voice,  Novelists born outside Britain, brought a new
range of experience into the modern novel
 Academic or campus Novel, The academy novel or campus novel became popular
among readers who had been to university and could recognize many of the issues
discussed ,  in this The History of Man (1975), Novel by Malcolm Bradbury was a
great success

Post-Modern Literature
 The term postmodernism refers to a philosophical and cultural movement
 Rejection of all meta-narratives
 Postmodernism rejects Western values and beliefs unlike modernism which places
faith in the ideas, values, beliefs, culture and norms of the west
 Both modern and post-modern literature represents a break from 19th century
realism, in which a story was told from an objective point of view

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 In character development both modern and postmodern literature explore
subjectivism, in many cases turning from external reality to examine inner states of
consciousness

Characteristic of Postmodernism in Fiction

 Playfulness with language (As African, Jazz Music style)
 Experimentation in the form of the novel (Doris Lessing)
 Let's reliance on traditional native form
 Let's reliance on traditional character development
 Experimentation with all point of view ( diversity)
 Experimentation with the way time is conveyed In the novel (timelessness)
 Mixture of ‘high art’ and popular culture
 Interest in medical fiction, that is, fiction about the nature of friction

Themes and Techniques

Intertextuality
 A term coined by Julia Kristeva to designate the various relationships that a given
text may have with other texts
 When books make references to other books, whereas vertical intertextuality is
found when, say, a book makes a reference to film or song or vice versa.
 (e. g. Fairy Stupid Tales)

Pastiche
 (Copy paste)
 A literary work composed from elements borrowed either from various other writers
or from a particular earlier author.
 A well known modern example is John Fowles’s novel The French Lieutenant’s
Woman, which is partly a pastiche of the great Victorian novelist

Meta fiction
 Meta fiction is fiction about fiction
 A kind of fiction openly comments on its own fictional status
 For Example, Italo Calvino’s 1979 novel, in which on a winter’s night a traveler is
about a reader attempting to read a novel of the same name

Magic Realism
 Works of magic realism mingle realistic portrayals of ordinary events and characters
with elements of fantasy and myth, creating a rich, frequently disuniting world that
is at once familiar and dream like

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